The number of poor air quality days in cities like Augusta could quadruple by late century.4

Asthma sickens an estimated 25,900 kids and 106,300 adults.5

Protect your family from air pollution:

Check news reports on the radio, TV, or online for pollen reports or daily air quality conditions. Or visit EPA's Air Now for air quality info and avoid outdoor activity on bad air days particularly for people with asthma or other respiratory diseases.

After spending time outdoors, wash off pollen that may have collected on your face, skin, or hair.

Maine's Climate Adaptation Strategy

Air Pollution:

Maine's strategy to prepare for climate change includes a measure to study and assess increased health threats from worsening air quality due to climate change.

Maine's climate preparedness strategy includes the following measure to prevent increases health threats from worsening air quality due to climate change:

Review existing data and current research to ensure that climate-related health concerns, such as exacerbation of respiratory symptoms due to increasing temperatures or air pollutant levels are known and understood.

Extreme Heat:

Maine's strategy to prepare for climate change includes measures to prevent the build-up of extreme heat in urban areas and to track the health impacts of extreme heat.

Maine's climate preparedness strategy includes the following measure to prevent increases in health threats from increased extreme heat days due to climate change:

Maintain and enhance urban and community forests to offset the urban heat island effect of increased summer temperatures.

Indicators for heat-related morbidity and mortality should be constructed as a part of the Maine Center for Disease Control's Environmental Public Health Tracking program.

Infectious Disease:

Maine's strategy to prepare for climate change identifies the spread of infectious diseases as a threat due to climate change but does not include specific measures to address this threat.

Drought:

Maine's strategy to prepare for climate change identifies drought as a health-related threat due to climate change but does not include specific measures to address this threat.

Flooding:

Maine's strategy to prepare for climate change identifies flooding as a health-related threat due to climate change but does not include specific measures to address this threat.

Extreme Weather:

Maine's climate preparedness strategy includes measures to protect public health from the increasing threat of extreme heat, storms, and risk of infectious disease due to extreme weather events caused by climate change.